Leaving Paris + Bordeaux good times.

As I write this, we are in a car in Bordeaux, rocketing towards the biggest sand dune in Europe, and apparently a beach as well.

While I enjoyed my time in Paris, especially towards when we left the place, Bordeaux has been nothing short of amazing.

First, the Boyé family, with whom I have been staying, have welcomed me with, quite literally, hugs and kisses, and, somewhat contradictingly, with open arms. They have been amazing tour guides, hosts, and friends, and I could not have asked more of my stay in Bordeaux.

The Boyé family minus Marie and Simon. Great people (including the missing ones).

Second, the city itself is amazing. The architecture is beautiful, and amazingly unified, kind of like Bath in England. Matthieu has been kind enough to give me a tour of the place by both night and day. Very charming city.

By day.

By night.

The people also seem to be quite a bit friendlier than those in Paris, despite me being a minor minority here.

Visiting the countryside was interesting, despite it being more or less as expected - that is, full of wineries.

-------

So a bit of time-lapse magic, and I'm now on the train from Milan to Venice. A bit about that later.

Back to where we started, and then a bit after.

We scaled the epic sand dune, known as the Dune de Pilat. Going up was ok, because there were stairs. Going down to the other side was also ok, because it was just sliding down sand.

Coming back up the sandy side was absolute hell. Walking up a steep mountain of loose sand for what I think was 1km was just slightly exhausting. I was extremely pleasantly surprised when my legs didn't hurt one bit the day after. Must be the magic in the water.

The water that I fell into after wading in and tripping on a submerged rock.

Despite the physical pain of both the climb and the fall, a fun time was had, and it was beautiful there. An amazing experience that money probably can't buy.

Me on the top of Dune du Pilat.

While Matthieu and I trekked back up the dune, he imparted some of his many fun facts on me, which he had been doing during the whole stay, some of which include:
- French people enjoy breaking rules, and Germans will hate you for it;
- the two important elements in how good a wine is are the earth, and the year in which it was made;
- life without coffee is not really a life a all;
- people in Madagascar are very resourceful;
- the wealth of Bordeaux is built on both slavery and wine;
- colonialism was bad;
- despite his frequent disregard for timeliness, his children are puzzlingly continually concerned about the issue of punctuality.

Anyway. Enough of that. After trekking back up and down, we proceeded to Arcachon (driving, thankfully), a nice beachside town. We had dinner while watching the sunset, which was quite a perfect last night in Bordeaux.

So now I'm on the train to Venice, still missing Bordeaux.

I did pretty much nothing in Milano except visit the duomo, and managing to get myself lost. The duomo was nice, as was the hotel. Yeah, end commentary.

So Paris, my favourite places were the Louvre, and the Luxembourg Gardens. The Louvre was amazing for what was in it as well as the architecture. The Gardens were very serene, beautiful, and relatively people-free. I also quite liked Versailles, although I thought it would be bigger.

In Bordeaux, I'm fairly certain my favourite part was everything. Just sitting around and eating, shooting the breeze, sightseeing with The Best Tour Guides Ever, and experiencing how people actually lived in a non-Paris part of France.

I don't mind Paris, but I definitely love Bordeaux.

Word of the day: Dune

What she order, fish fillet?

The more astute of you will have picked up from the title that I am blogging from Paris.

Paris, the city of romance, beauty, art, fashion, French, and incredible rudeness.

To be sure, it is a nice city (no idea why I'm coming over all Irish and stuff). It's beautiful, in fact. Well, the good parts are anyway.

But it's like kind of like a gorgeous girl who knows she's gorgeous, and acts accordingly. Externally, architecturally, and artistically, it is probably close to being without compare. It has a kind of beauty that cannot be matched by anything made by modern man. The level of care, meticulous attention to detail, and scale of many things in this city are amazing.

For this reason, it would be one of the greatest cities ever. However, there's one thing that severely, severely lets it down.

Yes, the people. I know, I know, people say it's exaggerated, and they're not that bad.

From what I have seen and experienced, it is that bad.

First day I got there, I ordered a fillet o fish at Maccas. The attitude of the guy, who knew very clearly that I was speaking English, was one of "Oh my god, this guy speaks English. Why do people have to speak English?". He sighed, and proceeded to speak in French with sign language. He was about 16 or 17 years of age. Surely he knows rudimentary English?

The next day, at the Eiffel Tower, the security dude started speaking to me in Chinese. Bad Chinese, because he wasn't actually Chinese. Not that I would have understood. Which is my point exactly.

However, although it was unnecessary, as the question I was being asked was not being asked of anyone else there, it was sort of understandable, so we'll let that one slide.

Other stuff happened in between, but I've forgotten now. Anyway, that night, we went to buy something at the supermarket. Assistant was all friendly and chummy with her French mate, then threw our stuff on the counter and got us to bag it ourselves. The difference is quite startling.

Today, I tried to put credit on my phone. The woman could speak English, knew full well that I spoke English, and still spoke very angry and frustrated French with me.

A bit later, I got laughed at the bakery because I spoke English. Once again, they knew I spoke English, and still insisted on speaking French with me.

I hate to stereotype, but most of the positive experiences with French customer service has come from black people. The taxi driver who drove us on the first day, very well spoken and very happy. The guy in the phone store today, who explained things to me in English after ascertaining that I didn't speak French. Another phone store guy today, who after not understanding me initially, got me to speak slower, and gave me directions.

The worst seem to be guys and middle-aged women. Most of them act as though you go into their store asking for money or something.

Anyway, I don't want to turn this into a Paris hate-fest. Again, it is a very nice city. While public transport is quite old and in need of sprucing up, it is very efficient and convenient.

While we did the Eiffel Tower, the Musee D'Orsay, the Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame yesterday, I enjoyed today much more. We went to the Louvre and the Luxembourg Gardens, and I went to Sacre-Coeur by myself today.

The Louvre has been my favourite so far. Absolutely amazing place. The building itself is a work of art comparable to the masterpieces that it contains. While waiting in line for an hour (because we got there at 8 in the morning), we started talking to these Canadians who were quite cool and nice. In hindsight, a good start to the day, and pretty much set the tone.

The Luxembourg Gardens come a close second. Beautifully natural, and lacking in massive crowds.


The Sacre-Coeur also had no lines. While inside, there was this moment that I would've loved to have captured on camera, but was forbidden by the no photography signs. Well, I could've, but disrespect and all that.


Anyway, it was the sun streaming in from the windows at the top, and it looked like sunlight that filters through a gap in the clouds sometimes. Beautiful. 


Speaking of lines, they're ridiculous. Everywhere. Which is also another annoying aspect. 


Backtracking a bit to London and England. 


People over there were more or less quite friendly and nice. Although quite a few of them started speaking Chinese and Japanese to me, or speaking English to me as if I were a three-year-old, it's not entirely unexpected when most of the Asians I saw (which were few and far between) were international students or tourists. 


The first day we got there, we pretty much only went to Emirate Stadium.

What an amazing stadium. Aesthetically beautiful, and so grand.

The coolest thing happened there as well. We were trying to get in an do the stadium tour, when the guy was like, "Sorry, the Legends Tour is about to start, so you'll have to come back at 1:30."

Charlie George, the legendary Charlie George, stood up for us, being all like "Oh, let them through." Then started conversing with us about where we came from, and how the football there was progressing. Apparently he'd played at some now-defunct Melbourne football club. Amazing.

What also amazed me was that the girl who sold me the Arsenal jersey actually knew about football. It's a feature that I've found with sales assistants in England. They're usually quite approachable and know what they're on about.

That night, I decided to go for a wander to London Bridge, because I thought it was the Millenium Bridge, because an alternate universe operates in my brain. Anyway, I got there, and was slightly disappointed, because there is essentially nothing there. It barely even resembles a bridge. However, it did give one a rather nice view of Tower Bridge (the good bridge). After taking some photos for a Swedish couple, I got them to do the same for me, and everyone was happy and stuff. (I later pulled this stunt off again at the Sacre-Coeur). Whilst there, I also saw the Monument, which is essentially a pole in the ground. And because London public transport is also quite efficient, I just jumped on the tube and went home.

So the next day, we went on a tour to Windsor Castle (cancelled because it was closed or something) Hampton Court Palace (because that's what they do when Windsor is closed), Bath (as distinct from bathing) and Stonehenge. Hampton Court Palace was massive and quite pretty inside and outside. Bath was stunning. The town planning restrictions - only limestone allowed in buildings - is pure genius. Stonehenge was what it is - a pile of rocks. It was absolutely freezing there too. While London was rainy, it wasn't as cold. Great tour.

We visited Buckingham Palace after the tour. Yeah, cool story.

The next day, Kenny and Cloris took us around London and efficiently and effectively took us to visit all the main London attractions. (We also visited the actual Millenium Bridge). We spent an inordinate, but very enjoyable, amount of time at Harrods, which is pretty much a museum of cool and expensive stuff.

I think Kenny worked it out to be roughly 6000 quid a pop. That's British Pounds. Not dollars. Not that 6000 dollars is exactly cheap.

Lol Harrods Wine.

A fun 'game', where we sniff different bottles (nothing suss), try and guess what we're smelling, and confirm our suspicions. Fun times.

Afterwards, Kenny and I headed to a bar to watch the football and catch up on various goings on. Overall, an awesome day. It was great having very amicable and knowledgable tour guides taking us around London town.

Tomorrow, we head to Versailles for a bit of opulent, decadent sightseeing. Should be good. 


Word of the Day: Paris

Pariiiii

So yesterday, I saw a pretty cool photo of Paris.

It wasn't a particularly awesome photo, but it was pretty nice.

The photo is here.

For some reason, my heart melted, and I felt it necessary to utter an "Oh my God".

I was by myself at the time. Which makes it even more strange.

I think the exterior beauty of the French capital has captured my heart. Not just its exterior beauty, but it's character, its history.

Hopefully I'll have the chance to visit her in June.

Word of the Day: Paris

Like a G6

I'm so stoked right now. It has been an amazing day. Australia winning the World Cup bid tonight/tomorrow morning would just absolutely make it.

I'm so stoked that I'm hoping this isn't a dream. We'll list things according to importance.

First up, I passed everything. I'm so unbelievably happy, mostly due to the fact that I thought I failed Accounting again for sure. But anyway, I passed, and I think I'm back on track. And I didn't have to disappoint my parents yet again. A big shout out to Eugene, who was there for me when the going got tough, more than happy to help me even though he must've been snowed under in study himself. A friend in need is a friend indeed. And Andrew does not forgot acts of kindness directed to him. He also speaks about himself in third person frequently.

Second. I had lunch with Irene, who I haven't seen in absolutely AGES. well, for like, a month. Which is a long time. Oh, and two friends-of a friend-of a friend Parisians were at the lunch too. Good times all around.

Best part was the train trip back. I miss train trips with friends. That was the best part of my day back in high school. Train trips after school with friends.

Anyway, we get off the train, head towards my car, and it starts absolutely bucketing down. This, while fun for a while, became not very fun quite quickly.

A quick recap of the weather. Rainy in the morning, eased up when I left the house, was scorchingly sunny when we got to the city and had lunch, became cloudy on the way back home, and started bucketing down while we were walking to the car. Which is where my story was.

I was absolutely drenched. I think the last time I was that drenched from rain was about two years ago, walking home from the tram stop for 20 minutes. I looked like I had swum to my car in my clothes. Irene, having good fortune as always, had to foresight to be wearing a big jacket.. The rain made her hair look amazing, whereas it made me look like a floundering...something. And she had the nerve to complain that she was soaked.

Anyway, the rain went nuts on the way to her house. Thankfully, it eased up when we got there, so I didn't have to take up space in her house and cause a disturbance sheltering from the rain. Would've been an interesting experience though. I've never been in there before.

I got home, dried myself off, and the sun came out about an hour later.

Third thing, Sarah finally called home from Paris. I got frowned upon (verbally) by the French dude on the other end of the line earlier in the day when I tried my French on him, so much so he decided to speak English to me, just so that I'd know that he'd identified me as phony phoreigner. Well done, Frenchman. But yeah, kind of thankful that I didn't have to go through that who rigmarole again.

And hopefully, a fourth thing, in a few hours, Australia getting the World Cup. That would be awesome on so many levels. As if give it to Qatar. Surely it's time Australia got a lucky break. And Arsenal won twice this week. Surely that's a sign of double the level of good luck.

Oh, and U2/Jay-Z concert tomorrow. Life is so good right now.

A song to sort of capture my mood at the moment (I've used Supersonic by Oasis too many times).

Word of the Day: Stoke

Le World Cup

I was informed by Marie, the French exchange student that Sarah has staying over, that in France, they call the World Cup...

...wait for it...

...this is so momentous it deserves a proper set-up...

"Le World Cup!"

Said, of course, with the requisite French accent. World-changing, that bit of information. You know, I don't really want to be going "Le Coup de Monde" every time I speak to a French person about the World Cup.

Speaking of accents, how funny is that Ronaldo ad? I don't know why. His accent is just funny. The first thing that strikes me (har har) is his pronunciation of places. Or, as he says it, play-cez. Here it is here, in all its glory.



I also love how he says "so do I" and "liquid engineering". "So-doh-why." "Likwud engineerink." Gotta love the guy. An arrogant, self-important, antagonistic, ball-hogging guy, but a joy to watch. The Premier League is a lot less exciting without him.

And speaking of French, a real pity about how the French team went out. Such a talent-laden team, ruined by in-fighting and politics. The would've done really well if they'd actually functioned as a unit.

And here we sit, on the eve of Australia's do-or-die match. Yes, the Ghana one was do-or-die. But this one is really do-or-die. Personally, I think 'die' is a bit intense. Having said that, it does promise to be a great morning (early, early morning at that too) of football, as so much can happen, and so much is dependent on what happens simultaneously in the other game. I love how people are talking about it as though Serbia are just waiting to be beaten, and it just depends on how much we beat them by.

Serbia, just at first glance, have one of the best defences going around. Just Vidic and Ivanovic alone would constitute a top defence. And the other two apparently aren't shabby either. One's going to Real Madrid, the other is apparently wanted at several awesome clubs too. Oh, and they also beat Germany, something which we failed to do.

However, as I have seen far too many times over the years, football is a crazy game. I've just realised at this moment how many random completely unexpected moments I've actually witnessed, and I don't even watch it on TV all that often. Arsenal v Liverpool in the Champions League quarter-finals second leg a few years back. Arsenal taking a one-goal lead at the Nou Camp, and subsequently getting destroyed by Messi. Wigan beating Arsenal at the tail-end of last season. Australia managing a draw with Croatia last World Cup. Chelsea getting knocked out by Barca in virtually the last minute of their second leg Champions League semi-final game. Kevin Muscat, the guy who never, ever misses a penalty, missing a penalty in the A-League Grand Final. Cronaldo, the guy who almost never, ever misses penalties, missing the Champions Leageu final.

The point is, anything can happen, and I believe that something crazy may just happen tomorrow. Yes, the odds are in favour of Australia losing regardless of what happens in the other game, but this is football, and part of its beauty is that the unexpected happens all the time.

Let's go Socceroos!

Word of the Day: Unexpected

Of Stevie Wonder and Henry

This story, for want of a better word, began on Friday after lunch.

So like, me and Linda were in David Jones, having been ditched by some unscrupulous people. Stevie Wonder came on, and we were bopping. Lo and behold, it was my ringtone. As if not recognise your own ringtone, Andrew.

To be fair, I'd only set it to my ringtone the day before. It was originally on 'See you in my Nightmares' by Kanye, but I decided that was too quiet.

It's now back to my favourite ringtone, 'Don't Go Away' by Oasis. It's very loud and distinctive, and I love the shredding of the guitar at the start. The potential for embarrassing, albeit classic moments, is reduced now. Don't know if that's really a good thing. It's a trade-off really.

So when I got home from the chill session at DJs, I visited one of my top 5 favourite websites, ESPN Soccernet, to see that the Henry storm was still in full force.

Please, people. If you're going to make such a big fuss about this, asking for replays and such, millions of matches would be replayed every season. A few off the top of my head to follow. First up, the one that touches a sore point with most Aussies: Fabio Grosso and his ridiculous dive in THAT match against Australia. Liverpool vs Birmangham a couple of weeks back, David N'gog and his comical dive.

I'm not supporting this type of behaviour. But shouldn't the ref have some responsibility, if not most of it? I mean, he missed a double handball from a player in an offside position. Surely one of the three refs should have seen one of those infringements. I don't see why Henry should take all the blame.

Of course all the Irish players are saying that they wouldn't have done the same in the same situation. That's because they were never in that type of position to do so. It's easy to say in retrospect, but I'm sure it seemed far more appealing to Henry to seal the deal in open play than to face the lottery of spot kicks. We'd all like to think that we wouldn't have done that, but if you think about it, you take a gamble, one kick, and your team is through to the biggest tournament on Earth. It's a hard offer to turn down, especially given the pressure on the team and the money involved in football today.

By extension, Henry's even taking one for the team, copping all this flack but helping his team through.

Yes, I love Henry. He was the reason that I started following Arsenal all those years ago. My opinion remains objective. My objectivity is apparent if anyone would have cared to listen to my rants. They would've heard me tell them that, although I felt the height of anger immediately after the Grosso dive, a few days later I came to be disappointed in the Socceroos for two reasons. Reason number 1: Italy are a man down. We let a fullback, playing in a highly defensive formation, get up into our penalty area in virtually the last minute of the game. What's more, the Socceroos can't even score a goal against them. Reason number 2: Lucas Neill and his flying tackle. Sure, he got the ball. But was it really necessary to go sliding in like that?

Cheating happens in football. The only way to stomp it out is with video replays, but FIFA seems so intent on letting match fixers have an easier time that this does not look like eventuating any time soon. In the mean time, the ref must bear most, if not all of the responsibility for failing to call up such a blatant foul.

Word of the Day: Henry

Post-exams...again

It's a sobering thought, but this "post-exam period" will be the first of many. In many ways, these exams actually matter more than the one's during high school, save the VCE ones.

I could leave it at that, and say that I've updated due to popular demand, but I'm a nice guy, so I'll write some more.

During this after-exam period, I have been gravitating between sitting around at home playing brainless games (The Sims Unleashed, hell yeah) and going out and spending too much money.

Just on that money business, I visited Crown Casino last Friday for a quick liaison with Lady Luck. This was my first time, as you can tell by my making it a blog post. As you (hopefully) know, Lady Luck is unbeatable at casinos, especially on pokies. I really didn't want to, but I blew a massive fifteen bucks on pokies. My original plan was to spend $50 in $10 increments on blackjack, but the lowest bid was 50. So I played pokies. Even though I knew I had no chance of winning. After blowing all of 15 bucks, the 15 dollar blackjack tables opened. I'm a dapper hand at blackjack, so I though I'd take the dealer on. I laid down 15 bucks. I think I got like a 17 or something. The dealer went bust. Then mum was like "Let's scram!" The dealer pretty much cracked up. I was gonna go another one, purely because luck was with me, but mum said just keep the luck and you'll be fine.

Euro 08. It's been pretty bad for my fantasy team so far. I doubt it'll get much better. Big names underperforming, idiot managers screwing around, and random teams winning. It hasn't been pretty. I'm supporting Spain, by the way, and have done for the whole tournament. In between raging about why the Spanish coach isn't playing Fabregas and wondering why on Earth Italy can't defend and why the hell Cronaldo and Torres don't score, I managed to watch one game. The Netherlands vs France. Although it wasn't really a game to remember (unlike Arsenal vs Liverpool, second leg of Champions League), I witnessed the perfection of Dutchness. They're a great team. It's a shame they got knocked out. I would have loved to watch Spain vs Holland for the finals.

In other football news, it turns out that the Arsenal jersey IS the one that it was rumoured to be. Now I'll have to get it. Stupid Nike. I figured out why they don't care about what they release. Because they know idiots like me will get it regardless.

I'm looking for a new job, by the way. This one's giving me the irrates. A lot of work for very little return. Give us a heads up if you've got anything to recommend. No-one seems to want to hire my services, and I understand that. It's me.

Word of the day: Hola